Wild Hog Hunting Provo UT

This page provides useful content and local businesses that can help with your search for Wild Hog Hunting. You will find helpful, informative articles about Wild Hog Hunting, including "Scopes That Will Work for Hunting Hogs" and "Pigging Out: Wild Hog Hunting". You will also find local businesses that provide the products or services that you are looking for. Please scroll down to find the local resources in Provo, UT that will answer all of your questions about Wild Hog Hunting.

Pigging Out: Wild Hog Hunting

My doctor denies it exists, but I know I have it. I am even fairly certain that most big game hunters share the excess anxiety and unspent energy brought about by PSSS, or post season stress syndrome. Other than occasionally venturing to the woods to change out trail camera cards or batteries, this time of year brings about little contact with the ungulates that were the focus of most of my time, energy and thoughts over the fall and winter. I am left with a giant void in my schedule and a burning desire to fill it with a similar activity. Bring on the hogs!

Although there is some debate, it is generally believed that domestic pigs were first brought to the United States as early as the 16th century by Spanish explorers. A combination of free-roaming practices and inadequate fencing eventually led to a subsequent feral hog population (those escaping from domestication and becoming wild). Russian wild boars were later brought to hunting preserves in several states and also resulted in a few lost ones. The result today is three types of wild hogs in the U.S.: feral hogs, Russian wild boars and a reproductive cross between them.

Although hogs have been on this continent for hundreds of years, they have become a topic of greater interest in the United States in the last decade. Through their adaptability and prolific nature, feral hogs have been expanding their range and increasing in numbers, with a current estimated national population of about four million. California, Florida and Texas have the highest populations of hogs (with Hawaii and Oklahoma quickly gaining on them) but they can be found in an increasing number of states (44 at last count). Hunters are becoming more aware of them as challenging, readily accessible and unwelcome big game prey in many regions.

Hog hunting provides an opportunity to get into the woods when all other seasons are closed.

In addition to the free-roaming wild populations scattered across the U.S., "Hog Hunting" preserves are located just about everywhere. Fenced enclosures (ranging in size from a few acres to several thousand) are often associated with a fish-in-a-barrel type hunt, but reputable outfitters focus on providing a challenging hunt while increasing the opportunity of success for younger hunters, those with less experience or someone with limited time to hunt. I once still hunted at a snail's pace through a 40-acre enclosure that contained more than 50 hogs, and never saw a single one until I began my second pass through.

In the wild, a feral hog will typically stick to a home range of less than 10 square miles. They are adaptable to virtually any type of habitat in the U.S. but will most often be found in swamps, forests, brushy areas and close to agricultural fields. They will spend most of the daylight hours resting and hiding in dense vegetation, thickets or brush piles or wallowing in mud holes.

If hogs are in the area, any brush pile could be a potential daytime resting area.

Scopes That Will Work for Hunting Hogs

There are still some who insist a scope is not needed for the type hunting they do, ignoring the advances of the last 150 years in optical sights. (Even the ultra-conservative US Army has adopted optical sights.) The idea that in some special circumstances open iron sights or aperture (peep) sights might be more useful is not lost on me, but with the inevitable advance of age comes the reduction in visual acuity needed for using iron sights.

I believe that many who completely resist the idea of shooting with a scope have probably got some personal reason, perhaps having sometime in the past used low quality glass or a scope that was not mounted or focused properly for them. However, a person who looks with an open mind at a decent quality scope of appropriate magnification for their type of hunting, mounted and focused correctly for their eye, will likely find they are able to pick up the techniques for proper scope use very quickly.

From what I've learned the last few years, the greatest majority of wild boar hunting is done at short to moderate ranges, say 10-150 yards, and shots farther than 200 yards would be considered very rare. Most wild hog country features thick cover and shots are rarely over 100 yards. This gives the hog hunter the advantage of being able to use many common calibers and rifle/scope combinations also used for short to medium range deer hunting.

The most common mistake in choosing a scope for both deer and hog hunting would be the tendency to "over scope," or buy a scope with higher magnification than actually needed. The 3-9X variable is the most common scope found on modern deer rifles, with it's owner feeling the 9X is what he/she needs to sight in at 100 or 200 yards and the 3X setting is sufficient for close quarters shots. I'll be bold enough to say that 90% of hog (or deer) hunters have no real use for a scope with 9X or 10X magnification.

Thinking it will help when properly sighting their rifles at 100 or even 200 yards is a misnomer, period. Please realize I am talking about hunters and hunting rifles, not serious target shooters, who have different needs and requirements than the hunter. Anyone skilled in shooting a high-powered rifle can shoot nearly identical groups at 100 yards with a 4X scope or a 9X scope(of the same quality). If you are shooting a .270, .308, or .30-06 class rifle, try it and see for yourself. It is truly enlightening.

The added FOV at 100 yards at 4X, rather than 9X, is like night and day. Hence, the true need for a high magnification scope for the serious hog hunter is nil, in my opinion. Simply dropping back one size "category" to a 2-7X variable will save size and weight, along with giving a better FOV at low power for close quarters shooting. A 2-7X scope has as much magnification as your rifle, caliber and any expected shot could require. The 2-7X variables and fixed 4X scopes are probably the most useful hunting scopes ever designed for big game hunting. Once, they were...

This page provides useful content and local businesses that can help with your search for Mountain Lion Hunting. You will find helpful, informative articles about Mountain Lion Hunting, including "South Dakota Bow Hunter Takes Mountain Lion", "South Dakota Wants to Increase Mountain Lion Limit", and "Mountain Lion Hunt Protesters Draw Licenses". You will also find local businesses that provide the products or services that you are looking for. Please scroll down to find the local resources in Provo, UT that will answer all of your questions about Mountain Lion Hunting.